Hello there, its Peter with your Levy Letter this Monday morning. Its the start of another week and so far the sun is shining. This weekend, Hull hosted many huge events including welcoming back the Hull and Humber yacht from one of the training races for the round-the-world Clipper Yacht Race. We were live on Friday night at the Hull Marina. Many thanks to everyone who came down to see us and good luck to our competition winner Ken Horden. Ken will be joining the yacht team in September for the start of the race. Well be following his progress and so can you. Ken will be leaving regular reports of his progress on our website, so take a look at bbc.co.uk/humber.
On tonight's Look North we'll be listening to the complaints as the first cheque to help the flood victims is handed over. They say it's too little, too late. And we'll be finding out how you could help the latest casualties of the floods - eighty orphaned hedgehogs currently being cared for at a special animal hospital in the region. Also tonight, we'll meet the soccer team from Hull, who have managed to win their first world cup since 1966. It may not be the World Cup, but its certainly a huge achievement, so well be chatting to them tonight. And we'll ask if vinyl is making a comeback as one record store in Lincoln ditches CDs in favour of wax. Normally we find that technology moves forwards with the latest gadgets and gismos, but perhaps this isnt the case this time. All this tonight on BBC One at half past six. I hope you can join me then. Talking of new leaps forward, I read today that scientists have just bred the worlds first schizophrenic mice. Despite objections from animal rights campaigners, they hope that this breakthrough in creating mice with a mental illness will allow doctors to gain a better understanding of the illness. These mice were bred to have schizophrenia by modifying their DNA to mimic a mutant gene that was first found in a Scottish family with a high incidence of the illness. Apparently schizophrenia affects about one in every one hundred people, so they hope that a greater understanding will develop of the illness and about depression and hyperactivity in general. Anybody, who has travelled up to Northumbria and visited the puffin nature reserve on Holy Island will have a fond memory of the funny looking birds. But I certainly didnt know that they were very special in terms of how old they can get. I found out today that one particular puffin was recaptured by ringers and was found to be at least thirty-four years old. Thats unbelievable isnt it? I had no idea they could be that old. That apparently, makes it the oldest in Britain and only one year short of being the oldest known puffin in the world! The puffin has been nicknamed Percy not very original I suppose! He was first ringed on Sule Skerry thats forty miles west of Orkney back in July 1975. Just amazing. So Percy the Puffin is at least thirty-four years old! Normally, I think we wait to see what the forecasters say about our weather and then moan if its not what we were hoping for. Well, residents in Skegness tomorrow are taking it one step further. A Red Indian medicine woman called Blue Sky will perform a ritual rain dance backwards in order to bring sunshine to our region. So if youre out and about in Skegness tomorrow, then get down to the beach at noon to see Blue Sky chase away the spirits that have caused the recent torrential downpours! Im not sure if I want to admit to believing in that or not, but I for one am certainly not going to question it! Lets hope Blue Sky is successful! Well, that's it from me for today. Just a final note and tribute to the wonderful actor, Mike Reid, who has died at the age of sixty-seven from a suspected heart attack. Mike played the incorrigible Frank Butcher in EastEnders for many years and many of his co-stars in the soap are very shocked at his death as it had been said that he had been in good health whilst living in Spain. Many tributes are coming in about how wonderful he was, how full of fun he was, so he will be sadly missed by many Im sure. Well thats all from me. Take care and I hope you can join me for tonights Look North. Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
